The setbacks suffered by the Social Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party, which were both reduced to less than 10 seats in Sunday’s House of Representatives election, mark a sharp decline in forces committed to opposing any change to the war-renouncing Constitution. Their ...

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday that the solid majority won by the ruling coalition in the House of Representatives election represents a public vote of confidence in his intention to send Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq. Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party won 237 seats ...

The results of Sunday’s election may have left a bitter taste in the mouths of some of the nation’s big names. Taku Yamasaki, vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party, handed in his resignation Monday after losing his Diet seat to opposition candidate Junichiro ...

The New Conservative Party will disband and join the Liberal Democratic Party, party executives said Monday. The NCP, the smallest force within the tripartite ruling coalition, suffered a crushing defeat in Sunday’s general election, losing five of its nine seats, including that of party ...

“Five pass, four fail.” That was a phrase long used to sum up the amounts of money — several hundred million yen — that separated winners from losers in Japan’s elections during decades of political corruption. In today’s money, that meant a winner had ...

There is no such thing as a freeway in Japan. For decades, it has been a given for drivers that if they use expressways they must pay the tolls, even though they’ve been promised that someday when the construction debts disappear so will the ...

In the shadow of intense campaigning for Sunday’s Lower House election, nine people are quietly waiting for voters to decide whether they deserve to stay in the nation’s top judicial posts. Held simultaneously with the general election, the 19th national referendum on Supreme Court ...

With the coming election in mind, former House of Representatives member Kaoru Yosano last spring departed the Liberal Democratic Party faction led by Shizuka Kamei. The Kamei faction is known for pushing public works projects as a way of propping up the economy, especially ...

Some 93 percent of candidates in Sunday’s House of Representatives election believe that the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea constitutes terrorism, according to the results of a survey released Monday. Only 55 percent, however, advocate slapping sanctions on North Korea, such as ...

OSAKA — It was an unusually warm day in late October when a small crowd gathered around a candidate speaking outside Izumigaoka Station near Kansai airport. Shingo Nishimura, a fiery ultraconservative who in 1999 was forced to resign as vice minister of the Defense ...

Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa qualified his assertion Sunday that “all” foreigners are “sneaky thieves,” stating instead that only “some” are. Matsuzawa was delivering a campaign speech in support of a candidate running in the Nov. 9 House of Representatives general election near a railway ...

Tokyo’s No. 3 constituency, encompassing Shinagawa and northern Ota wards as well as the Izu Islands, has captured heavy media attention ahead of the Nov. 9 general election, as one of Japan’s most well-known political families hopes to put yet another member in office. ...